Wyko Acquired by Eriks Group

Wyko Industrial Services (UK, privately held) has been acquired by Eriks Group (Netherlands, Euronext Amsterdam ERIKG, [website]). Eriks has recently been on an acquisition binge, buying up bearing and power transmission distributors in the UK, Belgium, Poland and the United States in response to changing international industrial markets. With the Wyko acquisition, Eriks becomes the "undisputed European market leader" supplying bearings, seals, power transmission equipment and MRO supplies. Operations are located across the UK, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Poland, Slovakia, France and Ireland, along with the United States and into southeast Asia. Wyko got its start in 1966 as Lye Bearings, and later began acquiring local power transmission distributors. After listing on the London exchange from 1985 to 1999, the company was taken private again in a management-led leveraged buyout financed by the Royal Bank of Scotland. It has since continued to expand aggressively and successfully. Today, Wyko is the UK's largest manufacturer and supplier of bearings and power transmission equipment, with more than 160 locations, 2,000 employees and annual sales over